How to Manage Weeds in Your Lawn

I know, weeds are a real pain and can make your lawn look like a right mess quickly. All that hard work and effort can sometimes feel worthless once weeds appear and start to throw seed everywhere. Well, what do we need to know?

• Why are they there?
• What kind are they?
• What can you do about it?

Weeds are grouped into 2 categories:

• Monocots (Grassy Weeds) Sedge, Crabgrass, Goosegrass etc.
• Dicots (Broadleaved Weeds) Dandelions, Plantains, Clover etc.

It’s important to distinguish the two because aftercare and prevention plans differ. Ultimately, we don’t want to waste money, so correct I.D. saves a penny!

In short, that covers what are they. Now let’s discuss why are they.

Seed, Seed, Seed, Seed, Seed, Seed, Seed, Seed, Seed, Seed, Seed, Seed, Seed, Seed.

Everything starts from seed, either blown in with the wind or dropped from a bird or tracked in. The seed finds an advantageous area and starts to germinate. Then the lifecycle starts! (What do I mean?) Well, seed develops to plant, then the plant matures to push flower, then flower produces seed. If the life cycle is not disrupted weeds can and will take over! Now what can you do about it?

There are many ways avenues you can go down to get the same result and they all fall into 2 categories.

Cultural Control and Chemical Control

Now both of these cover pre-emergent and post-emergent practices that can control weeds.

Cultural Control

• Hand removing weeds. (Reduce future populations) Very Labour Intensive!
• Developing a healthy lawn.
• Sodding any bare spots.
• Verticutting and aerifying to increase density. (Dense lawn = less open soil)
• Bagging your mower clippings (Remove seeds from active weeds)
• Develop and implement an accurate fertilizer plan.

Chemical Control

• Herbicides
  • Post emergent: Apply contact and or systemic herbicides to kill an active weed.
  • Make sure it’s a selective herbicide and make sure its mixed accurately.
  • Preemergent: Apply to kill the weed seeds in the soil. Disrupt the life cycle. Make sure timing is right as weeds germinate in the soil at different temperatures. (Generally active when soil temps get above 50F) and when forsythia starts blooming.

A combination of both control methods should be incorporated and is the best path to success. For more on herbicide applications check out my other post for a more detailed description.